I’m honored that everybody’s inspired off my inspiration.

It is not once nor twice but times without number that the same ideas make their appearance in the world.

Let freedom reign. The sun never set on so glorious a human achievement.

You know, T can stand for anything. T stand for working hard. T stand for loving thy neighbor. T stand for feeding the hungry. T stand for just working, working, working, being happy on the set, you know, lifting everybody’s spirits. T stands for just a nice guy.

Imperfection is beauty, madness is genius and it’s better to be absolutely ridiculous than absolutely boring.

The ideas I stand for are not mine. I borrowed them from Socrates. I swiped them from Chesterfield. I stole them from Jesus. And I put them in a book. If you don’t like their rules, whose would you use?

Where the spirit does not work with the hand, there is no art.

I don’t live for the accolades. I’m more so about the music. Making it, and putting it out. Those are the two best feelings.

You can’t wait for inspiration. You have to go after it with a club.

Laziness may appear attractive, but work gives satisfaction.

I don’t tell anyone how to write and no one tells me.

Fiction is based on reality unless you’re a fairytale artist.

I think you can have 10,000 explanations for failure, but no good explanation for success.

We were poor. But my mom never accepted that. She worked hard to become a residential contractor – got her master’s with honors at the University of New Orleans. I used to go to every class with her. Her father was my paternal figure.

I pity the fool who just gives up.

The ear is the only true writer and the only true reader.

I’ve always been amazed by Da Vinci, because he worked out science on his own. He would work by drawing things and writing down his ideas. Of course, he designed all sorts of flying machines way before you could actually build something like that.

Protect your enthusiasm from the negativity of others.

Sometimes people make it seem like you have to have certain prerequisites or a crazy life story in order to be successful in this world. But the truth is you really don’t.

Enthusiasm is the yeast that makes your hopes shine to the stars. Enthusiasm is the sparkle in your eyes, the swing in your gait. The grip of your hand, the irresistible surge of will and energy to execute your ideas.

I see drawings and pictures in the poorest of huts and the dirtiest of corners.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.

Do your damnedest in an ostentatious manner all the time.

I am looking for a lot of men who have an infinite capacity to not know what can’t be done.

What keeps me motivated is love and passion.

Sometimes I’ll jot a clever turn of phrase down. Sometimes I’ll just remember it.

Choose people who lift you up.

Scientists have to have a metaphor. All scientists start with imagination.

Art is the most intense mode of individualism that the world has known.

Someday, after mastering the winds, the waves, the tides and gravity, we shall harness for God the energies of love, and then, for a second time in the history of the world, man will have discovered fire.

Creativity is the key to success in the future, and primary education is where teachers can bring creativity in children at that level.

Men shrink less from offending one who inspires love than one who inspires fear.

A word after a word after a word is power.

He who is not courageous enough to take risks will accomplish nothing in life.

What a man can be, he must be. This need we call self-actualization.

Passion rebuilds the world for the youth. It makes all things alive and significant.

It is hard to interest those who have everything in those who have nothing.

How you respond to the challenge in the second half will determine what you become after the game, whether you are a winner or a loser.

Great things are done by a series of small things brought together.

I have so many designs and video ideas and lyrics in my head, so I always try to be productive.

You have to be practical. So every time I say, if you want to write a novel you have to be practical, people get bored. They are disappointed. They are expecting a more dynamic, creative, artistic thing to say. What I want to say is: you have to be practical.

When a person starts to talk about their dreams, it’s as if something bubbles up from within. Their eyes brighten, their face glows, and you can feel the excitement in their words.

A subject for a great poet would be God’s boredom after the seventh day of creation.

Poetry comes from the highest happiness or the deepest sorrow.

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

You must do the things you think you cannot do.

Don’t only practice your art, but force your way into its secrets; art deserves that, for it and knowledge can raise man to the Divine.

If your treat an individual… as if he were what he ought to be and could be, he will become what he ought to be and could be.

I’m a songwriter. Everything affects me.

We have one planet in our solar system that’s habitable, and that’s the Earth, and space travel can transform things back here for the better. First of all, by just having people go to space and look back on this fragile planet we live on. People have come back transformed and have done fantastic things.

Nothing is so fatiguing as the eternal hanging on of an uncompleted task.

Every bad situation is a blues song waiting to happen.

If a man can… make a better mousetrap, the world will make a beaten path to his door.

I have nothing to offer but blood, toil, tears and sweat.

Prince Charles is definitely my hero; he uses his position to do only good in this world.

It started to weigh on me that I was responsible for the moves that had made me successful, but I wasn’t reaping the lion’s share of the profits, and that was problematic for me.

Nothing builds self-esteem and self-confidence like accomplishment.

My dear friend, clear your mind of cant.

I know how fiction matters to me, because if I want to express myself, I have to make up a story. Some people call it imagination. To me, it’s not imagination. It’s just a way of watching.

In business or in life, don’t follow the wagon tracks too closely.

I’ve always been surrounded by many great people and professors, but my family, especially my mom who was a teacher, was the person who encouraged me to study and pushed me to continue. When we’re young, we don’t understand why our parents bug us so much with school and doing homework, but it’s a blessing to have that support at home.